CEO statement - Corporate Responsibility

CEO statement

Mike Smith, ANZ CEO A tumultuous year for the global financial system and the world economy served as an important wake-up call for many banks around the world.

Some household names in banking in the United States and Europe faltered and the world faced the most difficult economic conditions since the Great Depression. The consequences have been significant for many individuals, businesses and communities.

The crisis demonstrates what can happen when banks don’t pay sufficient attention to their wider purpose in society.

While ANZ has remained strong and among the best capitalised banks in the world, the global financial crisis also exposed weaknesses in our business.

Over the past two years we have recognised these and invested heavily in major change programs to strengthen governance, set clear standards and improve decision-making at every level of our organisation.

Stronger governance

This year we affirmed our commitment to corporate responsibility (CR). Our new CR framework and priorities support our strategy to strengthen our franchise in Australia and New Zealand and significantly grow our Asia-Pacific business. It will inform how we do business everyday and respond meaningfully to the lessons emerging for all banks out of the global financial crisis.

I will Chair ANZ’s CR Committee to personally guide implementation of the framework across our business.

At the highest levels of the organisation we started a new dialogue about values and ethics. Our organisational values of Integrity, Collaboration, Accountability, Respect and Excellence describe a shared vision of what we stand for – easy to understand and to apply to decisions everyday.

An enhanced Code of Conduct and Ethics for employees and an organisation-wide approach to recognising and responding to reputation risks are two further measures we have taken to continue to build an ethical and ‘risk-aware’ culture.

Being there for our customers

Practical, timely and sensitive service to customers has never been more important - it’s what our customers expect from us, especially in difficult times. It’s also at the heart of our new brand promise – ‘We live in your world’ – to understand their world better than anyone else and deliver people-focused and uncomplicated products and services.

We invested in more resources and staff training to support customers having difficulty paying their loans and committed to making A$8 billion in new lending available to viable small businesses, signaling our ongoing support for this critical sector.

Delivering on our commitments

Our 2010 CR targets have been set to deliver on our new approach to CR and we will continue to keep you informed of our progress through our monthly e-bulletin and interim and annual CR reporting.

As always, I welcome your feedback and look forward to your guidance and support as we enter this new phase of CR at ANZ.

Mike Smith

Michael Smith
Chief Executive Officer

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